Dante

Dante is the main character in the Devil May Cry series and a demon/human hybrid. He is the son of Sparda and Eva, as well as the twin brother of Vergil. His name comes from Dante Alighieri, who was a Florentine poet of the Middle Ages.

Appearance
Like his father and brother, Dante has white hair which remains in a fairly consistent style throughout his appearances, although there are a few minor changes. In Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 4, his hair is somewhat parted with his bangs brushed down, in Devil May Cry 3, his hair is simply brushed down, and in Devil may Cry 2; his hair is parted with his bangs in front of his right eye. Dante's most recurring design trait is his affinity for red-colored apparel, usually in the form of a long, two tailed coat. The character wears red because in Japan it is a traditional color for a heroic figure. The first coat chronically had zippers on the sleeves and a buckle around the waist. After Dante's first battle against Vergil, the right sleeve is damaged and is promptly torn off. In the first game and anime, the coat seems to be fairly plain with an upturned collar and short sleeves with black cuffs though the coat lacks coattails. In the fourth game, the coat is given a much more detailed, oriental and stylish look. By the second game, the coat has changed dramatically with a more pronounced buckled collar and a black chestplate of sorts.

Appearance and role in the game
In the original Devil May Cry, Dante is hired by Trish, a mysterious woman who looks similar to his deceased mother, to stop the return of the demon king Mundus. However, she is actually setting up events for Mundus' agents to kill Dante as he makes his way to Mundus himself. During the course of the game Dante is also reunited with his brother Vergil, who, under the control of Mundus, attempts to kill him. Trish eventually betrays Mundus to save Dante, and the pair work together to lock Mundus in the demon world. Afterwards, they become partners in Dante's demon slaying business, now re-named "Devil Never Cry".

After the success of the first game, Capcom immediately began development of its sequel, Devil May Cry 2. Hideki Kamiya, who directed the first game, was not involved in the sequel's development and the new creative team took a different direction. Dante's character was changed so that he spoke little, and his cocky attitude was largely absent. He also had a habit of flipping a coin to make his decisions.

Set some time after the first game, Devil May Cry 2 focuses on Dante aiding the character Lucia in defeating Arius, an international businessman who uses demonic power and seeks to conquer the world by attaining the power of Argosax the Chaos. At the end of the game, Dante must go into the demon world to stop a major demon from escaping, but the gate closes behind him and he is trapped. With no way back to the human world, Dante heads even deeper into the demon world on his motorcycle. There is an extra scene after the credits, in which Lucia is sitting in Dante's office when she hears a motorcycle outside and rushes out to see who it is.

The third game, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, serves as a prequel to the first game and features a younger and cockier Dante. While developed by the same team that did the second game, Devil May Cry 3 was much better received than the previous installment for staying true to the original. He has considerably more dialog during cutscenes, and players can verbally taunt monsters during gameplay. In the story, Dante is drawn out by his twin brother Vergil, who is attempting to reopen the portal to the demon world in order to obtain the full power of Sparda, which remains on the other side contained within the sword Force Edge. Along the way, Dante encounters Lady, who is in pursuit of her father Arkham, who is working with Vergil but has plans of his own. In the end, Dante claims ownership of the Force Edge, while Vergil chooses to remain in the demon world. Dante matures considerably during the game and, inspired by Lady's courage and commitment to her own family, continues his demon hunting business with a greater sense of purpose. They become partners, and he decides to call his shop "Devil May Cry", after something Lady had said to comfort him.

In Devil May Cry 4, Dante appears to be the antagonist, crashing in to a prayer group and shooting Sanctus, the Head of the Order of the Sword. After a brief fight with Nero, DMC4's new lead, Dante shows Nero that his fellow swordsmen, who Dante slew earlier, were demons. Dante then leaves Nero with a cryptic message, saying he will come to know the meaning of the demons. Nero later finds Dante again, and after fighting again, learns that Dante is after his brother's and Father's swords, in which the Order had taken (Sparda was given to the Order by "Gloria", who was Trish in disguise.).

Personality
Originally Dante was incredibly flippant, mouthing off to the most powerful of demons, and generally enjoyed rubbing people the wrong way. He does mature somewhat as time goes by, but never really loses the attitude. Dante is also seemingly unflappable, never seeming to be outwardly fazed by anything, whether he's being attacked by Hells in his office or a giant serpent demon closing it's jaws on him from behind.

Dante can seem at times to be uncaring, or even callous. However, he actually has a very strong sense of right and wrong, and prefers to fight fair. He can be counted on to do the right thing, even if he is making quips the entire time.

Unusually, while he seems to have a few issues with his own demonic side, Dante has no qualms about accepting demons who seem to be good, like Trish or Brad. During the anime, despite asking for money, he generally enjoys the task of performing missions from the good of his heart and helping those in need despite debt.

Powers And Abilities
Dante possesses power that surpasses that of most demons; he has enough physical strength to punch through stone with little difficulty, and often overpowers demons much larger than himself. Dante is extremely agile, able to jump to great heights, or even to balance on a flying rocket. Furthermore, he is able to channel his power into various physical objects, ranging from his guns to the air itself. He is also able to gain an immediate mastery of any weapon he picks up. This may be due to a demonic trait that allows him to do so, or possibly due to previous and extensive weapons training.

Dante states that he cannot and will not kill any humans, but also explains that "humans are often worse than demons" in the Devil May Cry anime.

Dante can seemingly instantly heal from or endure any wound; even the Hell Prides were surprised when he virtually ignored their attack on him at the beginning of Devil May Cry 3. However, this ability can eventually be worn down.

Thanks to his half-demon nature, Dante can release his demon self through his Devil Trigger. The appearance of this form varies throughout the games — in Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 3, the form is influenced by which Devil Arm he carries, while in Devil May Cry 2 and Devil May Cry 4 he has a pair of devil forms believed to be his "true" Devil form. These forms boost his various abilities, and sometimes grant him new ones.

In Devil May Cry 4, it is implied that Dante's strength is not due to his father, but from his will to protect others. After Dante defeats Agnus, Dante tells him that the reason he's inferior is because he surrendered his humanity. It is further suggested that any demon who possesses the will to protect/love others rather than to destroy and conquer will gain the full extent of their demonic power (though Dante, Vergil and Nero may simply be the exceptions to this because they have human souls, as well as demonic essences).

Weapons
Dante's trademark weapons are the Rebellion, Sparda (Force Edge), and Ebony & Ivory. He also uses a shotgun in each game, though it is a different one each time.

He frequently collects other Fire Arms and Devil Arms throughout the course of each game, but he usually stores these in his office between games.

Pre-Games
After his father's death/disappearance, Dante and his family were attacked by demons. Vergil disappeared and his mother was killed. Surviving, Dante would spend the time between this event and the manga learning to control his powers and meeting Enzo, eventually starting a shop. During this time, he went by the alias Anthony "Tony" Redgrave.

Devil May Cry 3
In the first cutscene of the game, a younger, cockier Dante is seen in his yet-to-be-named shop, and met Arkham, who invited him to the Temen-ni-gru on behalf of his brother Vergil by sending a few Hell Prides and Lusts to attack him. After being impaled by his attackers, Dante almost effortlessly kills them all, while removing some of the scythe blades from his arms and stomach. In the great tower, he encounters many unique demonic gatekeepers who were sealed away by Dante's father, such as Cerberus the Ice Guardian, Nevan the Lightning Witch, Beowulf the Lightbeast, and a few others. Upon defeating most of these demons, Dante is given their souls in the form of new weapons or combat styles, and often plays around with them. After defeating Vergil at the end of the game, Dante mourns the loss of his brother, but is comforted by Lady, whom he forms a sort of partnership in demon hunting with.

Novels
The novels were originally written to fill the gap between Dante's past and subsequently Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 2. However, with the release of new canonical material, eg Devil May Cry 3, major contradictions have removed the novels from continuity. The first novel supposedly takes place before the first game with Dante going by the alias of Tony Redgrave and has encounters with a man named Gilver who coincidentally wielded a katana and hid his face with numerous bandages. In the end, the man is revealed to be Vergil before he becomes brainwashed by Mundus. The second novel also takes place before the second game. Unlike DMC2, Dante retains his talkative, carefree personality from all of the other games and is allied with a woman named Beryl, whose similarities parallel Lady, wielding a Spiral-like weapon

Comics
Three issues of a comic adaptation of the first game was published by Canadian publisher Dreamwave Productions in 2004, but was left unfinished when the company went bankrupt in 2005. The third issue ended with Dante being knocked out by Trish.

Other Games
Dante has appeared in a number of other games. These include:
 * Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - Dante is hired to kill the player. He is recruitable to the party later on the game. This was in due to Kazama Kaneko, the character designer for the series including him in the game. In return, he was brought into designing the Devil Trigger forms for Devil May Cry 3.
 * Viewtiful Joe - Dante is playable in the PS2 version of the game and he must save Trish. He appears in the PSP version of Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble as a bonus character. He lends his biplane, Carnival, to Captain Blue for a scene in one of his movie and he and the player race to defeat the boss of the stage. His costumes are standard, blue coat, underwear and Plasma. In viewtiful Joe 1, his in-game cutscene dialouge is spoken backwords, as is the case with all other unlockable characters.
 * He is a character card in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter DS.
 * He makes a cameo in Jedah Dohma's ending in Capcom Fighting Evolution.

Trivia

 * Dante is a big fan of pizza and strawberry sundaes.
 * Apparently in the manga (Code 1: "Dante") he was extremely drunk when proposing to a mop.
 * Dante mentions that he dislikes olives, ironically he usually get olives on his pizza after asking for them to be excluded.
 * Dante has extremely bad luck, losing in any form of gambling that has nothing to do with devil slaying.
 * The anime mentions that Dante is horribly in debt, owing Lady a large amount of money as well as paying the city for any property damages he causes while devil slaying, according to him, this is because people usually leave him a bill rather than pay him.
 * Interestingly, Dante is impaled by his own sword in every installment (excluding DMC 2) by an opponent. In DMC, Trish pins him to the floor with the Force Edge. In DMC3, Vergil stabs him with the Rebellion. In the anime, Sid impales him through the heart on a cross. In DMC4, after hurling Dante into the Sparda statue, Nero spears him with the Rebellion.
 * Dante's seiyu in the anime, Toshiyuki Morikawa, also voiced Ryu in the Street Fighter series.
 * Additionally, Dante's English voice actor, Reuben Langdon, also voices Ken in Street Fighter IV, another Capcom character who also predominantly wears red, and motion captures Chris Redfield and voices Curtis Miller, both characters in Capcom's Resident Evil series.
 * Dante appears to have experience with instruments, seemingly those associated with rock bands such as his demonstration with the Devil Arm guitar Nevan as well as having a drum set and a guitar in his office in DMC3
 * His hairstyle in Devil May Cry 2 is somewhat similar to Leon S. Kennedy's hairstyle in Capcom's Resident Evil 4

Gallery
Gallery:Dante